Kenya’s ambitious tree planting goal achievable

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent announcement of a new national tree-planting drive was welcome news, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to reversing the country’s worrying levels of deforestation.

Currently, Kenya’s forest coverage stands at 7.6 per cent, below the target level of 10 per cent. The new campaign is seeking to plant an additional 1.8 billion trees in the next five years.

The Government’s goal is ambitious, but with good reason. The loss of our nation’s forests carries both environmental and economic consequences.

Deforestation can accelerate climate change by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and increasing soil erosion and desertification.

The negative effects of deforestation on the country’s public health, agriculture, fishing, and other industries cost the Kenyan economy Sh5.8 billion in a year, according to one United Nations study.

Planting 1.8 billion trees will not be an easy task, but with proper planning, effective utilisation of resources, and a consistent national commitment, it can be done.

My organisation, One Acre Fund, has worked with small-scale farmers in Kenya and can demonstrated that it is possible to plant trees on a large scale.

Over the past six years, we have distributed seeds and seedlings to farmers primarily in Kenya and Rwanda, facilitating the planting of more than 21 million trees. Over time, we have learned some important lessons about how large-scale agroforestry campaigns can be made successful.

Certain varieties

Smallholder farmers are an important constituency to tap into if the national tree-planting campaign is to succeed because they are stewards of most of the nation’s land.

About 80 per cent of Kenyans derive their livelihoods from agriculture, and most are smallholders who produce food for their households.

In addition to helping mitigate climate change, trees have many practical advantages for farmers. Certain varieties, such as grevillea, can benefit the soil when grown alongside staple food crops. The wood can be a source of income if farmers cut and replant their trees after a few years.

In our experience, farmers are more than willing to engage in agroforestry when they are given access to seeds and trained on how to care for them. Even though many Kenyans are receptive to planting trees, there is still the challenge of access. Farmers in particular need to be able to obtain seeds or seedlings at prices they can afford.

The Government can help solve this problem by focusing on two areas: distribution and affordability. Currently, Kenya is not producing enough quality seedlings to meet the Government’s targets, according to recent news reports.

We hope that agencies such as the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, the Kenya Plant Health Inspection Service, and the Kenya Forestry Service will work together to ensure farmers have access to enough quality and diverse trees to enable this campaign to work.

In addition, the Government could help reduce the consumer cost of trees by eliminating the value added tax (VAT) on tree seedlings and seeds.

Many of our nation’s farmers come from lower income households, so removing financial barriers such as VAT could go a long way in encouraging more people in rural areas to get involved in agroforestry.

Tree planting

The mandate of increasing forest coverage to 10 per cent is written into Kenya’s Constitution, which means that government leaders at the highest level are invested in planting trees.

But we need to ensure that this message reaches everyone, and that national, county, and local ward leaders are all committed to the cause.

Chiefs and their assistants, for instance, would be effective in engaging with farmers during weekly barazas to promote tree planting and share best practices.

Further, if they encouraged farmers to plant two trees for every single one cut, then the country would definitely attain its targets.

The private sector, development partners, donor agencies, and non-governmental organisations also should join the drive and commit resources to building a sustainable environment through tree planting.

There is a lot of work to be done, but we can look to our neighbors for inspiration. In Rwanda, the government launched a forest intensification programme in 2011 that sought to increase forest coverage to 30 per cent by 2020.

Rwanda has already reached its goal, with two years to spare. It is one of only a few countries in the world with a positive rate of reforestation, meaning that every year, more trees are planted and protected than cut down.

It is important to remember that we still have a chance to reverse our deforestation course. Kenya’s target of planting 1.8 billion trees is audacious, but by learning from the experiences of others and actively rallying more citizens to the campaign, we can achieve our goal.